His True Queen
by Miss Phyllis Baxter
Summary: Stannis plays chess with Melisandre and realizes that she may be his true queen after all. (AU, somewhat modern)


**His True Queen**

**By: **shadowofdragonstone

**Ship: **Stannis x Melisandre

**Word Count: **726

**Summary: **Stannis plays chess with Melisandre and realizes that she may be his true queen after all. (AU, somewhat modern)

**Note: **If you happen to be wondering what's with the special sets that Stannis and Mel have, Mel's pieces are red and Stannis' are yellow, custom designed. Melisandre had her's designed so her king looks like Stannis.

"But Mel, the king is the most important and powerful piece on the board," Stannis argued, sitting across from Melisandre who sighed and rolled her eyes once again. He leaned forward, picked up his king and tossed it to her. Melisandre caught it and put it down on the table. "Without the king, a side loses in chess. The king goes, the game is finished."

"Yes Stannis, I know, but the king actually isn't the most important or the most powerful on the board," she replied, picking up her Queen and holding it between the thumb and index finger of her right hand. "A queen can move farther on the board than the king, than any other piece. Diagonal, forwards, backwards, sideways as many squares as she can, and her primary function is to protect her king. A queen always protects her king. A true queen always holds more power than her king, and she uses that power to protect him. Kings would be no where without their queens." She smiled as she picked up his king again and tossed it back to him.

20 minutes later, when their chess game was finished (Melisandre had won again), Stannis took his pieces and put them away, where Mel had left them on the table while she went to make the two of them tea. After he finished putting the pieces away, he walked back to the board and picked up Melisadndre's Queen piece. _A true queen always holds more power than her king, _he thought, remembering her words from earlier. Selyse didn't hold any level of power over him, and it was quite obvious. She was a good woman, really, but without any power. Melisandre had a level of power over him, and at times it could unnerve him, but at the end of the day, it had been for the best that she held some power over him. She had saved him time and time again in ways that no one knew, and he doubted that even she knew.

Come to think of it, Stannis didn't even know if when Melisandre had been talking about true queen's she had been trying to make herself sound better for him than Selyse was. She was certainly more beautiful, but not once had Melisandre said that a queen must be beautiful. All she had said was that a queen held more power than her king, and everything she did was to protect him. To him, that did sound a lot like Melisandre, much more than it could ever sound like Selyse. While he sat there just comparing Selyse to Melisandre, she came in binging their tea.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, shaking him out of his thoughts. He looked up at her and attempted a smile, which caused her to furrow her eyebrows and check his forehead for a temperature.

"Nothing's the matter," he said, taking her hand from his forehead and holding it in his own. Melisandre glanced at their clasped hands for a moment before smiling at him.

"Your tea," she whispered, pointing to the side table before sitting down and taking a sip of her own, not pulling her hand from his.

"Thank you," he replied, sitting in silence as he sipped his tea. "I was just thinking about what you said earlier. About the queen being the most important."

"Oh?" she asked, looking at him. "Do you agree with my reasoning now?"

"I do, but I was also wondering if you knew how Queen-like you are?" he asked. "I mean, with me, you're always so Queen-like."

"How?" she asked, unsure of precisely what he meant.

"You have more power than me, when you really think about it. I wouldn't do anything if you didn't think it was a good idea and you always seem to want to protect me in any way you can. I've seen you around men who insult me, your jumping to my defence," he said. "That's how you described a queen's behaviour."

"I did, and I do all this because we're friends," she said, blushing lightly as she caught sight of their clasped hands again.

"Is that all we are?" he asked, moving closer to her.

"Well, I know that I love you," she said, smiling and closing the small gap between them to press a soft kiss to his lips.

_~Lady Melisandre wore no crown, but every man there knew that she was Stannis Baratheon's real queen. -Jon Snow (A Dance with Dragons, 148)_


End file.
